It’s almost World COPD Day. Also called “smoker’s bronchitis” or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, it affects three and a half million people in France. But two thirds of them do not know their diagnosis.
Coughing when you wake up when you are a smoker is normal for many. In reality, this can hide a more serious problem, a disease of the pulmonary bronchi, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) also called smoker’s bronchitis. A disease little known to smokers, and diagnosed too late
Insidious shortness of breath
From a few bronchitis each year to respiratory failure which handicaps the patient at the slightest effort, with shortness of breath during less and less significant effort, the disease progresses slowly. But, it struggles to be detected today. Only a third of patients know their diagnosis. While it is enough to look if one is more out of breath than someone of his age when one makes a physical effort, like climbing stairs.
Patients and doctors are sometimes poorly sensitized. Patients may consult their doctor several times during the winter for what they think is recurrent bronchitis, and as the shortness of breath on exertion is difficult to quantify in consultation, the diagnosis is not necessarily evoked then that in reality it is already COPD.
Extend screening
Today, smokers from the age of 40, and women smokers from the age of 45, are prescribed an “EFR”, for respiratory function exploration, a test which makes it possible to evaluate respiratory function and detect a beginning obstruction of the bronchi. The recommendation of professionals is to pass a test for all smokers, whatever their age, from 20 packets per year for a man, and 15 for a woman.
Because the disease presents risks: recurrent bronchial superinfections, hospitalizations, shortness of breath with the effort which is accentuated. The decline in respiratory function is very difficult to reverse, hence the importance of acting early. The first objective is to quit smoking, it’s a good thing it’s the month of November. Then with drug treatments, physical activity or respiratory physiotherapy, we can improve things and live almost normally.
Assess the breath
One of the solutions to improve screening: equip all general practitioners with a spirometer-type device, which tests the breath. If the test shows the slightest disorder, then it is necessary to deepen by a complete EFR test with a pulmonologist, to see if it is indeed a COPD. An experiment has been conducted in this direction by the Health Insurance which has equipped and trained volunteer general practitioners in 3 French regions.
COPD concerns three and a half million people and, today, 15,000 deaths are linked to the disease in France.
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